Welcome to the Internet Age, where everything online is convenient to get to, but you also have to pay close attention to cyber security. It’s a fantastic system when all of your info is at your fingertips, but if you’re not careful, there are chances for hackers to slip into your data stream and cause a real ruckus.

Five warnings that you need to be aware of with regard to this security matter would be with respect to website operation, email processes, using your mobile phone with certain apps, protecting your passwords, and watching out for open networks (i.e. ones that aren’t locked with passwords).

Website Operation

How familiar are you with the idea of SSL certification? If you operate your own website, perhaps as a company system administrator, or even as the owner of a blog, then you should be knowledgeable about the topic. If you have any sort of financial information from people who visit or use your site, or any sort of other data that comes from them (or you) that needs to be secure all the time, then knowing the importance of SSL is going to be up there on a list of things for you to understand.

Email Processes

Have you ever looked into how secure your emails really are? Obviously you have a message that goes from your account into other people’s email boxes. However, do you know if those messages can get intercepted somewhere? Are they archived on a central server somewhere? To combat the potential for damage, there are programs that offer additional encryption to email services in order to put your mind at ease about this particular topic.

Using Your Mobile Phone

And did you know that your mobile phone is probably not as private as you’d imagine? The fact that all that information is constantly moving in and out over wi-fi signals, through the virtual ether, in and out of cloud drives – that’s a lot of opportunities for hackers to get into your information if you don’t have basic protections in place within your apps.

Protecting Your Passwords

And the best way to keep things as secure as possible is to use the best passwords you can. And since there’s no way to remember them, especially because you’re supposed to use a different password for every site, that’s why it’s recommended that you use a password manager.

Watch Out For Open Networks

When you’re at home, you’re probably using wifi that has a secure password and encryption on your moving data paths. However, when you’re out in public, that natural encryption state is not going to be present, so be extra cautious when it comes to things like looking through bank statements or viewing and sending sensitive medical data.